T61 + SSD = High pith noise gone

[Totoro-kun]

Good evening,
Just wanted to note, that my T61 type 7659 used to produce a high pitch noise when running on battery with wireless enabled. Now, that I have replaced my mechanical drive with ssd one, the noise has gone completely. How come? Could it be due to less power consumption?

[TuuS]

Well, the obvious choice would be the harddrive, but I'm not sure why it would only make noise when on battery and on wireless, so you may ineed have a failing componant. I would do some trial n error, using another battery and your old harddrive, see if you can reproduce it, and try disabling your speakers, see if the sound is coming from them, or from an actual component, or from the hdd itself.

You could just be happy and hope for the best, but it would be nice to know if you have a potential timebomb that could go off at some point... not saying it's likely, but would be nice to know.

[Totoro-kun]

It is known Issue, there is page on ThinkWiki and my model T61 7659-12G is listed there. And it is written that this model, when on battery. Noise level varies from inaudible to clearly audible, screeching sound, or sometimes beeping (when wifi is on). Which I can confirm, it has always done this, since I own it. I also have 3 different batteries, the sound was there with any of them. And the sound would only be gone, when AC adapter is plugged OR wifi disabled. But now, with ssd - no sound at all, ThinkPad is quiet as a night

[Johan]

High-pitched noise in certain laptops (especially when running on battery?), incl. several ThinkPad-models, is a wide-spread annoyance and has been discussed a great deal also on this forum (try, if you wish, to use Google and search for the string high pitched noise site:forum.thinkpads.com)

In the thread My 7th thinkpad and... NOISE! expert-member jimmy74 is giving an explanation of the core issue for this noise (in this post) which could seem to indicate that the power-consumption while on battery has an influence on the power-supply mode and hence an influence on the audible noise.

It could be interesting if you could share with us the specifications about your prior mechanical harddrive (especially its power consumption, in the misc. operation modes) with the same power-consumption specifications for your new SSD.

Johan

[Totoro-kun]

Well, at the moment I can't tell exact power consumptions, and I'm not exactly sure how to measure it on Linux, but if I'll get time to find out, I will share the numbers. At the moment I can tell, that my mechanical drive was one of the WD Black's 7200rpm 320GB and I have switched it for one of Corsair Force3 F60 Sata3 SSD, Model CSSD-F60GB3A-BK. Also I can note, that before WD black, I have been using Toshiba hdd, which was 5400rpm model and high pitch noise was present even then.

[Johan]

... what I meant with respect to the DC-power consumption (the old HDD versus the new SSD) was most that it could be interesting to simply check the power-consumption values from the datasheet for the two different disks - that will just require a few minutes of Google'ing!

By the way, if you don't already know this (and in such case just for your ThinkPad-education!), I'd like to mention that T61's were initially (when delivered from the factory) limited to SATA-I speeds owing to a company-decision by Lenovo, although the chipset in e.g. T61's would actually support the mush faster SATA-II. Now, and here's where it gets interesting; a very clever ThinkPad'er has developed a patch which will enable SATA-II speeds in e.g. T61's; see the thread SATA-II BIOS patch for T61/T61p and X61/X61s (X61t coming). If you haven't already upgraded your T61 with this patch, I am sure that you will experience a significant boost in speed especially with your very fast, new SSD!

Johan

[TuuS]

I also recommend the "middleton bios" for all T61 models. I install it on all of mine. Since you use linux you'll be limited to using the bootable CDrom disc to update it. If possible, I'd recommend installing it on a 32bit windows version, the install app gives you multiple confirmations to where you can abort if your system doesn't appear to run stable, where the CDrom will proceed even if the system is unstable. In my case, a bad optical drive caused the flash to fail, so be careful, and this is nothing unique to the middleton bios, he didn't design the installed, it's a stock lenovo program.

You can also install it from a 32bit windows boot disc.


*intended to benefit all readers*

[Totoro-kun]

As advised, I have done little google search And found a review of notebook hard drives and Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT is there. Power consumption is stated 1.1W for idle and 3.26W peak. Then I have searched for F60 review, but wasn't able to find a decent one, however here is one for F60's bigger brother F120, and power consumption measures are in the bottom of it. And F120 is using 0.49W idle and up to 1.1W peak. And in this review of ssd's little F40 power consumption is very similar to F120. So F60 should share similar results, maybe in between F120 and F40.

As for Sata II mod, I have applied it some time ago, though I didn't really need it back then, just done it because of an interest. But now I am happy that I did. The operating system boots significantly faster and all my applications starts really quickly. Hat down to a clever ThinkPad'er who made this mod happen. T61 is my favorite machine of all the ThinkPads that I had honor to own. Very sturdy, reliable and comfortable to work with. And now combined with Linux, SSD and Middleton bios it's a really fast one too

[miro_gt]

I have 4 Thinkpads all T61 and all of them make the noise when on battery I think it's coming form the speakers actually.

I can also confirm that middleton's bios does wonders Using it over 6 months now.

[aeharding]

+1 for the SSD! It works great for me, an Intel 320. Best upgrade I've done for a computer...

[JeffCullen]

I actually notice more strange noises from my machine now with the SSD than before, when the familiar din of the hard drive would drown everything else out... I've always had comparatively noisy, but fast hard drives in my machines and for the first several days it really creeped me out how eerily silent my Thinkpad is now...